LAUNCH OF JAXA’S MMX MARS MISSION, Oct 19, 2026, 3:41 pm EDT (Oct 20, 4:41 am JST), Tanegashima, Japan

JAXA is getting ready to launch the Mars Moon eXploration (MMX) mission to study the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos and return samples of Phobos to Earth.  NASA is providing the Mars-moon Exploration with Gamma ray and Neutrons instrument called MEGANE (pronounced meh-GAH-nay, the Japanese word for “eyeglasses”).

The launch window opens on October 20, 2026 at 4:41:03 am Japan Standard Time (October 19, 3:41:03 pm Eastern Daylight Time) and remains open through November 7.

This will be JAXA’s third sample return mission following Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 that returned samples from the asteroids Itokawa and Ryugu respectively.